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#1
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
....when you work at home and dropping everything to play with him right then isn't an option. :-) A 10month old miniature poodle was bestowed upon me ... who's generally a delight and we're half way through our obedience classes. He's been with us for about 2 months now, the last 3 weeks of which has included a new baby in the household. The only problem I'm having with him is that both my wife and I work from home, and inevitably, in the midday, the dog will come pestering us to play. Barking loudly and getting low and staring at us, and being evasive if you try to go to him, so you really can't catch him to do any correction. Or, other times coming up and scratching on your arm (ow), or nipping at your heels if you walk down the hall. In response to this stuff, which can indicate either "I wanna play" or the all important "I need to go out" I'll send him outside, and most times, nope, it wasn't "I need to go to the bathroom" -- most times you find he just wanted to play or get attention. This is further complicated by him using these same signals to indicate that he really does need to go out. This sort of behavior was also an issue before the baby, but the baby has intensified it since he's not getting as much attention now. Here's what I've tried: -Dominance down-holding him down by the shoulder for a bit to get him submisive again... but that's only if I can catch him in the act or shortly thereafter. If there's too much of me chasing him involved, it becomes a game to him, and I'm rewarding the barking behavior. And, it doesn't seem to be terribly effective as a deterrent. If he's jacked up to play, he pretty much remains that way. -Crating we've tried during the day, but this poodle being the uber people dog (gets really put off and barks incessantly if he's locked in his crate while there are folks in the house and stuff is going on. The feeling slighted if left out is evidently a bit of a poodle thing if some breed descriptions i've read are to be believe. Otherwise, he doesn't min the crate per se--he'll opt to sleep there voluntarily with the door open if he's in eyesight of one of our offices, and he's fine with it if we're leaving the house (no barks heard from the garage as we move to depart), but if you're at home and he's locked in, holy moses, it's a loud annoying scene unfortunately. -Best I can do is to go to him, get him on a short lead with his training color, tie it to my belt and have him follow me around. When I sit down, I down him (which he seems to take pretty well now) and he does calm a bit. I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas on how to handle the nuissance barking or scratching for attention, or it's something that'll eventually pass as he gets more used to the baby and gets older and mellower. Caveat: If you are a nutjob and responses include the word "HOWEDY", it's unlikely I'll read it. :-) To everyone else, I'd enjoy the input! Best Regards, -- Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/ |
#2
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
On 11 Aug 2006 16:13:42 -0500, (Todd H.), clicked their
heels and said: ...when you work at home and dropping everything to play with him right then isn't an option. :-) I notice that you didn't include "engage in play sessions throughout the day, on the humans' terms". That's what I would choose. You have a young, playful dog. When your child is 2, you'll have a better idea. yes - entertaining oneself is an important skill, but they both need your interaction at reasonable intervals as well. -- Janet Boss www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com |
#3
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
Janet B writes:
On 11 Aug 2006 16:13:42 -0500, (Todd H.), clicked their heels and said: ...when you work at home and dropping everything to play with him right then isn't an option. :-) I notice that you didn't include "engage in play sessions throughout the day, on the humans' terms". That's what I would choose. You have a young, playful dog. When your child is 2, you'll have a better idea. yes - entertaining oneself is an important skill, but they both need your interaction at reasonable intervals as well. Hi Janet, Sounds like a reasonable suggestion. Easy enough to try to see if it stems it, and I suspect it'll certainly help. -- Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/ |
#4
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
Howdy! (just kidding , I couldn't resist)
I'd say number one thing to work on is adjusting his "I gotta go out" signal, and seperating it from his "I wanna play signal". Nipping at your heels and scratching you isn't really a good way for him to tell you he needs to go outside. Problem is, its been working, so he'll likely keep it up. When you were toilet training him, how did you do it? Did you always use the same door? I'm trying to figure out how he decided this was a successful strategy.... Next, when he goes out to pee, does he come right back in again? Or does he then play in the garden for a while? Personally I would start taking him outside on his leash, and then right back in again when he pees. That way he doesn't decide that playing goes along with peeing. I'd also work on a 'pre-emptive strike' strategy. Tire him out in the mornings, take him for a long walk etc. Dale |
#5
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
In article AF7Dg.2728$Nz6.708@edtnps82,
Dale Atkin wrote: I'd say number one thing to work on is adjusting his "I gotta go out" signal, and seperating it from his "I wanna play signal". That's an excellent point, and I agree 100%. I work from home, too, and I've got 7 dogs. The dogs learned pretty quickly that when they come and get me in my office I'm going to let them out and there's no play involved. But they're also part of my daily schedule and not an afterthought, so they've got training and exercise time already allocated. -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Bad policies lead to bad results. |
#6
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
"Todd H." wrote in message ... ...when you work at home and dropping everything to play with him right then isn't an option. :-) A 10month old miniature poodle was bestowed upon me ... who's generally a delight and we're half way through our obedience classes. He's been with us for about 2 months now, the last 3 weeks of which has included a new baby in the household. The only problem I'm having with him is that both my wife and I work from home, and inevitably, in the midday, the dog will come pestering us to play. Barking loudly and getting low and staring at us, and being evasive if you try to go to him, so you really can't catch him to do any correction. Or, other times coming up and scratching on your arm (ow), or nipping at your heels if you walk down the hall. In response to this stuff, which can indicate either "I wanna play" or the all important "I need to go out" I'll send him outside, and most times, nope, it wasn't "I need to go to the bathroom" -- most times you find he just wanted to play or get attention. This is further complicated by him using these same signals to indicate that he really does need to go out. This sort of behavior was also an issue before the baby, but the baby has intensified it since he's not getting as much attention now. Here's what I've tried: -Dominance down-holding him down by the shoulder for a bit to get him submisive again... but that's only if I can catch him in the act or shortly thereafter. If there's too much of me chasing him involved, it becomes a game to him, and I'm rewarding the barking behavior. And, it doesn't seem to be terribly effective as a deterrent. If he's jacked up to play, he pretty much remains that way. -Crating we've tried during the day, but this poodle being the uber people dog (gets really put off and barks incessantly if he's locked in his crate while there are folks in the house and stuff is going on. The feeling slighted if left out is evidently a bit of a poodle thing if some breed descriptions i've read are to be believe. Otherwise, he doesn't min the crate per se--he'll opt to sleep there voluntarily with the door open if he's in eyesight of one of our offices, and he's fine with it if we're leaving the house (no barks heard from the garage as we move to depart), but if you're at home and he's locked in, holy moses, it's a loud annoying scene unfortunately. -Best I can do is to go to him, get him on a short lead with his training color, tie it to my belt and have him follow me around. When I sit down, I down him (which he seems to take pretty well now) and he does calm a bit. I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas on how to handle the nuissance barking or scratching for attention, or it's something that'll eventually pass as he gets more used to the baby and gets older and mellower. Caveat: If you are a nutjob and responses include the word "HOWEDY", it's unlikely I'll read it. :-) To everyone else, I'd enjoy the input! Best Regards, -- Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/ ======================= Maybe you could hire someone to take the dog for a daily walk, if you are unable to do it, to keep the dog from being bored and to tire him out, so that when he is around you, he will mostly want to rest. Poodles are very active dogs. You could also allow certain times of the day set aside just to spend with the dog, i.e.. 10 a.m. 30 minutes every morning, maybe tossing the ball for the dog to chase or walking the dog, or playing and talking to the dog, and again maybe at 3 pm. 30 minutes of attention in the afternoon and maybe 7 p.m., 30 minutes again after dinner. It is hard when you have a baby, but it sounds as though the dog is seeking some much needed exercise and attention. ------------- |
#7
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
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#8
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
"Dale Atkin" writes:
Howdy! (just kidding , I couldn't resist) Hey, you left out the E, so I'm listenin! I'd say number one thing to work on is adjusting his "I gotta go out" signal, and seperating it from his "I wanna play signal". Nipping at your heels and scratching you isn't really a good way for him to tell you he needs to go outside. Problem is, its been working, so he'll likely keep it up. When you were toilet training him, how did you do it? Did you always use the same door? I'm trying to figure out how he decided this was a successful strategy.... Problem was, the prior owner took care of the potty training. To her credit, he is very good with no messing in the house. She walked him on lead out the same door every time. Here, we have a backyard, and I used to let him out the back door... but he was attached to me enough and/or timid enough of the new back yard enough that I'd have to walk with him down to the yard off the deck and sit with him before he's start sniffing around. But lately he's become a little more independent and I can just sent him outside. Next, when he goes out to pee, does he come right back in again? Or does he then play in the garden for a while? Used to be he'd come right back again, but lately with cooler weather and being increasingly familiar with the backyard, he'll go play a bit. Personally I would start taking him outside on his leash, and then right back in again when he pees. That way he doesn't decide that playing goes along with peeing. I'd also work on a 'pre-emptive strike' strategy. Tire him out in the mornings, take him for a long walk etc. Good input--appreciate the ideas. -- Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/ |
#9
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
Paula writes:
You don't have to hold him down or even catch him and I wouldn't chase him down because that is an attention game. If he comes in and bugs you, tell him to down and then pet him while he is down. If he runs away from you, let him run out and then shut the door. He will hate that, but poodles are smart. He'll figure out he is better off down with you than running around away from you. I taught our mini poodle to "go sleepy" because he was bugging the hell out of me beebopping all over the place. He loves to have his belly rubbed, so I would tell him "go sleepy" when he was bouncing around him and then rub his belly for as long as he stayed still. Since my hand was right there, I could make him stay there if I needed to, but not in a dominance way. He just no longer got a belly rub if he moved away from my hand, or moved at all. Now his favorite game is to come over and go sleepy instead of coming over and jumping around. Jumping around or on me means banishment to this day. He is welcome to hang out right near me for as long as he wants to as long as he is not bugging me, though. When I need a break from studying, I take a few minutes to throw his squeaky woobie around for him to chase, always followed by something that calms him down before he is expected to stay fairly still. I need fairly frequent breaks anyway so it works well. It doesn't have to be a long break as long as they aren't too far between. He gets longer training and play times in the morning and the evening. He also gets to chase Molly around, but only if they are in another part of the house. He is usually really good about hanging out without bugging me now. Paula, this too looks like some great ideas, and breed specific to boot. Thanks much for teh ideas. I'll see what I can do to redirect this attention getting. The closed door would definitely be something this one would learn from. Just so long as he didn't redirect and go bark and bug mom and the baby. I'll experiment with it. But what I think the biggest thing I need to be able to do is schedule some small blocks to play with the dog specifically even though there really isn't time between work and helping with the new and extremely needy cute little primate in our lives. When mom's struggling to keep baby quiet, and daddy lacks the glands to pacify the baby, dad doesn't exactly feel like "Dear, I'm gonna go out and throw the ball with the dog for 30 minutes" is gonna go over real well. But we'll see if I can get away with a smaller block of something to exhaust the critter until the baby becomes less of a handful. Obviously though, without investing some preemptive time, the coming in and bugging and nuissance barking thing has to change. Thanks again to all who responded with ideas. Best Regards, -- Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/ |
#10
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Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?
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